The Magic Bracelet
by TheWeasleyBoys
Summary: Sometimes, fairy tales are one's only escape from the harsh truths of life...


**Disclaimer:** Did I mention Repo ain't mine?!

**Author's Note:** I got the idea for this after seeing a still from 'Legal Assassin'. Betcha can't guess which one… ;)

_For Shilo Wallace, the nightmare began at sunrise._

_She woke up alone behind her plastic curtains, her breathing labored and her heart drumming in her ears. Her medicine had stopped working, and now she was too weak to reach for the bottle. She didn't know how she managed to call for her father, yet there he was, coming to her rescue just like the hero in a fairy tale…_

The Magic Bracelet

Once upon a time, in a castle far, far away, there lived a little Princess with skin as white as snow, eyes as dark as night, and lips as pink as rosebuds. She lived in the highest part of the castle where she could watch the clouds pass her window; call the stars in the night sky by name; and count the long lines of chariots and carriages in the streets below.

This princess was also very fragile, and to be kept inside a special room where no germ or virus could ever reach her. If she ever ran too fast; ate too much; or got too excited; something terrible might happen to her heart that no magic could undo. And so, in order to keep that terrible something from coming, the princess was told to never leave her special room so that she would live as long as Time allowed her.

At this same time, there was a quiet but protective King guarding the Princess, coming in and out of the special room every night to check up on her. This King was a very clever doctor who spent his days looking after all the sick people in the kingdom, giving them medicine to make them feel better, and sending them home to get well again. He was also the Princess' loving Daddy, and just like the sick people outside, he would give her medicine to help her whenever she felt too tired or too lonely.

One day, the little Princess noticed something was wrong. The medicine the King gave to her made her feel better for a little while, but several days later, she would go back to feeling sick again. Was there something wrong about her that kept her from feeling better forever? Had the King made a mistake, and given her the wrong sort of medicine? Or, worst of all, had some wicked witch put a spell on the medicine so that it couldn't make her sickness go away…?

The King seemed to hear her questions without her asking them, for later that night, he led the Princess out of her special room; down a long flight of stairs; and to a door she had seen all too many times before. That was the door that led to a cold gray room, and in that room was a large, hard bed made especially for her Mommy, the Queen.

Mommy had died giving Daddy the Princess, because he had already told her this many times. What she didn't know was _how come_—how come other Mommies gave Daddies sons and daughters all the time and did not die?

The King took her tiny hand into his own, and soon, he told her everything she had not known before. The Queen had been very sick with something called a blood disease, and before the Princess was born, the disease must have passed to her as well. That was why she had to live in her special room, and that was why she had to take her medicine every day.

But why did the medicine not work any more? Why did she keep feeling sick when she should start to feel better?

Because the Princess was a big girl now, the King said, and big girls had to start taking big girl medicine. There would be no more tiny pills for her, because instead, it was time to begin on a new, slightly bigger pill. And with that pill came something else—a shiny, silver, magic bracelet that could talk. It would tell the King when the Princess needed to take that pill, so that nothing bad would happen to her.

If the Princess always wore it, then she would never be late for her medicine. And if she always remembered this new medicine; then she would never have to worry about feeling sick to her stomach, or fainting, or feeling too tired to move. She could play and read as much as she wanted...but only as long as she stayed safe and sound inside her tower.

The Princess loved her new bracelet very much, and begged the King to put it around her wrist. He did so without complaint, and because the Princess had been a good girl, he promised that the Queen would be as happy with her as he was. Moreover, he assured her that no bad virus would creep into her room as long as he was there. The King was a doctor, of course, but more importantly, he was also her Daddy…and good Daddies always watched over their Princesses. With new medicine and magic bracelets at his command, he would be there to make sure she could live happily ever after.

"_I miss Mommy," Shilo whimpered, fingering her bracelet and looking at the stone coffin. "I wish she were here now."_

"_So do I, Shi," her father sighed, reaching down to take her hand. "So do I."_

The End…?


End file.
